Getting old sucks…
Went in yesterday for yet another hearing exam after the last one didn’t get saved due to computer issues.
And I’m creeping up on being officially deaf. Left ear down 68-70dB pretty much across the entire spectrum, but especially above 3kHz. Right ear down 50dB with the same issues.
Left ear is even worse on ‘word discrimination’, even with male voicing words.
So, ladies, I WILL be staring at your faces so I can read your lips. Sigh…
Oh, and I will be getting TWO new hearing aids in March, apparently they have to be special ordered and the doctor that saw me yesterday is at 32 weeks of pregnancy (I swear the baby sat down before she did!), so yesterday was her last day of seeing patients for the next couple of months due to baby girl getting ‘ejected’ one way or the other in the next week or so…
But she did say she was plugging in all the required programming and filing it so that whomever ends up fitting me will have all the programming to start with and adjustments will be made from there.
I’m thankful the tech is available and the VA is providing it for free, but dammit, I hate getting old!!!
Yea, but is STILL beats the alternative (not getting any older)
I can sympathize. I’ve had serious hearing problems since about halfway through my navy career. Woke up one morning in the barracks and my right ear had lost about half it’s sensitivity. Spent the next 10 years visiting specialists who tried to figure out what was wrong (best guess: otosclerosis). The last doc I saw wanted to do surgery and pull the whole inner ear out and poke around a bit. I decided to cut my losses and just go with hearing aids. It’s been a couple of years now since my last pair wore out. I suppose I’ll have to haul my butt down to the VA and see how long it takes to get a new pair.
I had surgery for otosclerosis in the early 90s. The first ear fixed up fine, but the second ear, two prosthetics failed (disconnected) after a year. The fact that that surgeon dropped medicine and went into real estate tells me the problem was systemic. (Should have gone with another ENT after the failures, but…)
FWIW, I have almost 30 years on the last one, and 33 on the first. Mine was day surgery, and I was able to get back to work in a few days.
The left ear (the problem child) has a fair amount of nerve damage for reasons. The jack-hammer the surgeon used on the last go-round didn’t help. (Really small jackhammer. 🙂 )
I know what you mean. In my mind I still think I am about 35 but my body tells me WRONG! You are 75 going on 76. Time marches on.
I developed mild tinnitus back in December (or at least noticed it then), plus the hearing loss from working in the shop without ear protection (I was young, I was stupid, the others didn’t realize that I didn’t have ear-pro on …), and from a guy at the gym dropping a weight stack beside me (that one hurt for hours after – worse than the gunshot at close range).
The most recent weather change started me aching a day in advance. Mileage is no fun, but as Merlin says, it beats the alternative.
Could somebody please explain why a pair of adjustable, noise canceling earbuds (with microphone) costs about $100, but hearing aids cost $1,000 each, and are only available after three visits to the doctor and extensive testing?
McChuck: Profit. Also, the Feds are involved.
While noise-canceling is brute force detection and generating a waveform that’s 180 degrees out of phase with the incoming sounds, hearing aids are programable and adjusted for your particular hearing loss. And audiologists ain’t cheap. Also, PROFIT!
My audiologist told me the new-to-the-market cheap hearing assistance gizmos are a waste of money as she has yet to meet a patient who was satisfied with them long-term. Of course, she may have a vested interest…
I LOVE that I can stream the TV/laptop/cellphone/etc. audio into my aids via Bluetooth; no more waiting until a commercial to head for the head, er, bathroom.
Hearing aids are adjusted to match your tested loss profile and boost the sound the provide. Earpro just reduces the sound level overall, or cuts out at a specific sound pressure level. I get my hearing aids from Costco, so they are out of pocket but a 3rd the price from an audiologist and I only need two visits: one to test and one to fit.
Going on 20+ years with hearing aids now. I was always careful to wear ear protection around noisy apus and while shooting but an audiologist explained that the extended exposure to the low frequency in aircraft would explain the loss. I guess a couple thousand hours in P-3s didn’t help any.
The VA is great for hearing aids if nothing else.
I have the same problem. Before I retired I worked in a office with all Female crew. I told them if i appear to ignore you I am not I can’t hear you. One co-wroker recognized that without being told so she made sure I was facing her if she needed to talk to me
I use hearing aids too. You don’t wear hearing protection in a combat zone.
To echo what others have said above, what we all have to deal with is better than a six foot drop and a mouth full of dirt.
We’re all being turned into cyborgs through the miracle that is modern medicine. Somehow I thought that it would far more cool than it is.
I’ve spent decades ignoring the ringing in my ears. The damage was due to the folly of my youth and ignorance. Aging seems to make it louder, although it’s always been loud. If I focus on the sound, it drives me to distraction.
Yes, aging sucks, but it’s interesting to watch those ignoring sound advice…no pun intended.
All those years bouncing around in airplanes probably didn’t help your hearing. People need to be within three feet of me before I can distinguish their words.
All- Thanks for helping me understand I’m not the only one. And yes, looking down at the daisies is better than the option! TXRed, don’t get me started on the tinnitus, I’ve been dealing with that for over 20 years now, sigh…
Oh, while I’m thinking about it, if you’re going through the VA, you’re supposed to get new hearing aids at least every four years, so if you’re outside that window, go get an appointment and get your new set!
I believe you can get new hearing aids every two years if you are getting them through the VA. Just received my 4th pair a few weeks ago and they are the best pair I have ever had. These are the rechargeable ones that have the over the ear style controls making them very comfortable for all day use. I can crank those babies up and hear conversations from the next room clears as a bell. Amazing hearing what your family says about you thinking you can’t hear them.Like the Bluetooth cell phone ability plus music streaming. If those are the ones you are getting you will be happy. Helicopter gunships and being a door gunner for 2-1/2 years is very hard on you but damn it was fun!
I’ve had tinnitus fairly bad for the past 30 + years.
A couple of years ago I went in for a hearing test and to see if there was any good treatment for the tinnitus. No such treatment is available.
I had xyz hearing loss in both ears and xyz ++ in one ear. Funny because I found a statement from a school nurse from 3rd grade (when they used to do hearing tests yearly) documenting the hearing loss in the one ear back then.
I should probably be looking for hearing aids in the next couple of years…….. (I’m only 60)
Matt- Ouch!
Been using VA hearing aids for decades. They have always issued top of the line units. In fact, I have a pendant that connects wired from the TV to the transmitter to pendant, or Bluetooth from the cell phone or tablet, again BT, to broadcast directly into the hearing aids. Hell of a unit, but I use it infrequently.
The tuning for specific frequencies’ heating loss is MUCH better than simply amplifying everything. One session of after-issue tuning will make a believer of you on that point.
Note that you can order both batteries and wax filters online and delivery is fairly prompt. It was good when they added the wax filers — used to be batteries online or phone but filters phone only.
VA here has been right up front with re-issue. Twice have gone in for just a small thing , they looked at the record and said hey, you’re due for new ones. They repaired the old and issued new, so for many years I have always had 2 pair, one old and one newer.
Hopefully the same for you, but here if you break a battery door or similar you don’t need an appointment. Just go in, fill out a form, shove it and the aid into an envelope, and drop in the box. They repair without you having to wait for or go to an appointment because the integrity of the aid itself has not been compromised.
If your aid has a button to focus on who’s in front of you, USE IT! Makes a big difference.
I predict you will go in stages. First, this is strange, but it really helps — when I decide to wear it. Next, you will wear them more often and definitely for special circumstances. Going to a restaurant — do I want to wear them? Next, you won’t even think about it. In time those aids will be like putting on a shirt, just a natural part of the overall you. It will no longer be something strange. No, no more, just you.
You are not alone. Just look at the number of people in the audiology waiting area when you were there!
Yes, I wore hearing protection on the flightline in the military, but one gets a real lesson in hearing through bone conduction when hanging on to a fuel line under a B-52 engine at full power.
I started wearing hearing aids at 31. Medically Retired from the Navy at 39 due to tinnitus and hearing loss. Had to fight to make 20 before they booted me. Right now rated at 90% disability but working on 100%. The only thing I hear in the left ear is ringing. Hearing aids are a lifesaver.
Got tinnitus about 20 years ago after an allergic reaction to an antibiotic and it has been my companion to varying degrees since then. Hearing aids don’t help but they don’t hurt either and I will go and get a set one of these days since my regular hearing is getting worse and worse. OldNFO, glad the VA is taking care of yours. My hearing tests, well the medics just kept raising my baseline upward every year so my “hearing loss” is minimal but if you go over the whole length of my career there is a substantial drop. I will say I was complicit in this since I really wanted to stay in my career field.
EdC: What are you waiting for? 🙂
I copied my entire med records a week before I retired. Heh. VA lost the argument because I had those records.
Same here. Or is it “hear”? My wife has been bugging me for a few years now to get my hearing checked. I know it’s bad, and I have the ringing/buzzing/whistling in my ears.
My dad used hearings aids and part of me wonders if he shouted himself partially deaf at raucous lunches back in the day. Man, the sheer volume…
Good luck!
Bro, hearing aid are cheap. I spent year on the flight line and the range. The new tech is wunderbar! Don’t fret. Just go to the audiologitis and get new ears.
All- Thanks, and yes a career in aviation and 60+ years of shooting have NOT helped… sigh
We talk about the things that have contributed, but how many people die of old age with perfect hearing.?
I think it’s like a lot of other things that deteriorate with age. It’s a PITA but so are a lot of other things.
WHAT??? 😂
I’ve got hearing loss, especially in my left ear. Drove farm machinery and attended concerts with no ear protection. Pretty sure it was the detassling machines that hit hardest since I was right on the engine.
All that said, with my voice, anyone with hearing loss has problems hearing me so I always try to be face to face with folks.
I was diagnosed with “significant” hearing loss as a child. It wasn’t a big problem until I was in my fifties. I paid out of my own pocket for hearing aids.
The audiologist did his best across multiple visits, but the main problem was that most of the people I needed to listen to don’t appear to speak intelligible English. All those years, I thought my ears were the problem, not “muh fuh wadda hooba.”
The aids have about twenty hours on them. I lost bothered to use them more than six years ago. Since they didn’t help the main problem, there was no point in it.
By the way, if you’re “hard of hearing” and have trouble with telephones, be aware the most common hearing-loss profile is what they call the “cookie bite”, from its shape on a polar audiogram. That’s when the main hearing loss is across – surprise – the range of the human voice. Telephones, to save bandwidth, transmit mostly that range. Usually there’s enough bandwidth at the ends you can get by. However, newer digital exchanges use a narrower band and a sharper cutoff. Both cellular and land lines dynamically route calls to balance the load across the system. I can be listening to someone on the phone, and then it will go completely silent in mid-word. Sometimes it comes back, sometimes it doesn’t. I can hand the phone to my wife and she can hear voices just fine.
What happens is, some part of the connection chain for the call gets routed through newer hardware, than chops out the “wasted bandwidth” and only transmits… the parts I can’t hear.